14th-20th June, Johannesburg, Soccer City, and lots of drinks!


Our first game we were to watch at the world cup was the game between Holland and Denmark in Johannesburg at the soccer city stadium. We caught the park and ride from Gold Reef City near Soweto after a taxi ride and duly arrived at the ground problem free. We were instantly impressed with the stadium, so much so that the boys wanted a photo on the bus. I grabbed my camera spun back around to find that the stadium had gone...vanished into thin air. I turned back to Scott and Silv to find them laughing at me as we had gone round a roundabout and consequently the stadium was now the other side!
We were pretty late into the stadium arriving at our seats just as the players were leaving the tunnel. Our seats were amazing. Although category 2 seats we were sat 12 rows from the pitch towards the penalty area of one half. The ground's design is inspired by the iconic African pot known as the calabash, and with the sun beating down on us for the entire game it felt like we were in a melting pot! The game itself was tame with the Danish mounting a spirited half time draw only to be rolled over in the second half. I really enjoyed being at the stadium regardless of the game, and the structure as a whole was impressive. I wasn't so such about the outside aesthetics with panels of the shell structure missing which gave the feeling of the stadium not being finished.

During our time at Rosebank we meet some really cool people. In particular there was a small group of us who had outstayed most others, along with the Argentineans. In no particular order there was Tim a stereotypical American jock type with a fondness for British slang and throwing up the V's, Chris a Canadian born Portuguese/German supporter due to his family's roots, Tina a lovely Slovenian girl who was volunteering at the World Cup, and James a hilarious, well traveled, eccentric American man. My favourite story from Chris was about him having his camera stolen in Cape Town whilst drunk. He had earlier stepped on his glasses so was pretty much unsighted and he proceeded to pay off beggars with 20 rand bills which caused more beggars to swarm in the chaos he lost huis camera and ran after the thief. He found himself in a strange area of town with the man on the door to the place the guy ran advising him not to go in or he could get into really deep trouble. He asked the police to help but they said there was nothing they ccould do. He then proceeded to enlist the help of a prostitute and her drug dealer boyfriend who agreed to return the camera for a price. They returned without the camera and asked for more money and this process happened a few times and he kept handing out money with no reward! James told also told us a funny story about when he slept with a Colombian woman. She emailed him 9 months later with the title "I have a suprise for you!" He duly deleted the email and set about living life only to find out a few weeks later that the suprise was she was moving to a University near to where he stayed and so on finding out replied with an email tittled "Im so happy for you..and me!"

Between our first and our second games we had many a night of drinking and general antics which due to to alcohol and the time between experiencing and writing can not be recalled in chronological order. Firstly we had a night of drinks which started in the previously mentioned bulldog bar. Scott wasn't feeling well so he stayed in but Silver and I accompanied the aforementioned group plus Andrew, Katie and Rachel 3 more Americans to watch the France game. The bar closed early so we strayed through the area of Rosebank before coming to a more upmarket hotel named the crown plaza. This was a nice place apparently one of the football teams stayed there overnight before playing at soccer city. Our group looked a little out of place in the rags which you'd usually find backpackers in. Anyway we drank the night away sitting at circular tables separated by crystal beads dangling from the ceiling - very fancy!

Our next night out was probably the most bizarre. We had gone to the fanpark in Sandton again to watch England vs Algeria. The day was bitter cold and the night was even worse and as a result the crowd in the fanpark was minimal. So after braving the cold all day we huddled in a tent which held about 100 to shelter from the cold whilst watching the most dismal showing from our national side. Severely downhearted a group from the hostel jumped in a van which was driven by a loud self assured man named Jay a South African who worked with the computers at the hostel. Here our group plus four Englishmen, and a Danish girl we had met earlier in the day accompanied us on the journey. We thought we were going home but instead the guy took us to a set of bars near a mall. We scouted around the mall the place was pretty quiet. We were walking past the closed shops on the first floor and we came across one that was open. The place was a tourist information centre - for Jewish people. In the open shop was one big table with a whole host of food on it. We were rather taken aback when the five or so Jewish men all equipped with their yamakas beckoned us in. They welcomed us all and gave us beer. They proceeded to ask all of our names and say where we were from before we all sat round the big table and discussed football, geography, traveling and such. One Jewish man in particular was relishing the role of host and stood up and gave a speech introducing his compatriots and explaining what it was they did. He did go on a little, talking about how fate had brought us together which was kinda nice, if not a little long. Many beers later we said our thanks and left the Jews and returned to the hostel.

Perhaps our most boozy night came when we followed Tim and Chris and two other Canadians to a pub out of Rosebank named The Jollyrogers. I knew we were in for a heavy night when Tim reduced ordering a beer to placing a 100 rand note on the bar and asking for as much beer as that would be able to buy! The pub wasn't the biggest but had two floors, with the upstairs being quieter. During the game we were sat next to a group of English fans who cheered and chanted for every individual who came and went to the toilet - gotta cheer something I guess. After the games we went down stairs where they had turned on some music and as the booze flowed so did the dancing. The night had many highlights: Tina ended up embarrassed after one to man drinks led her to let slip a piece of gossip, we had a funny conversation with James about if he was straight or not with him reducing the conundrum to if there was a burning c*** and burning vagina and you could only put one out, Tina's South African roommate (who Brittany and Andrea were convinced was a prostitute) giving James a table dance, and most notably an individual whose sex was debatable so much so that is was debated for most of the night and the following morning.

We watched the second Bafana Bafana game at a place called Melrose Arch, a very tourist friendly place with two big screens and a number of bars. We found a bar which was home to the House of Afro a performance group with a very camp front man. The place was huge!!! It had four levels with the bottom level being a big underground restaurant! The atmosphere at the start of the game was very good following Switzerland's suprise victory over Spain. The atmosphere didn't last long as deadly Diego crushed the hosts leaving a less than positive attitude at the bar!

Our second game at Soccer City was a belter - Brazil versus Ivory Coast. We opted for a different way of getting to the stadium gong via Sandton City and hitching two buses to the ground. There was a number of Brazilians who used the same method and whilst waiting for the buses we saw many Brazilians hanging out of taxis shouting at the big group of yellow we were contained in. When the Brazilians play at the world cup the atmosphere is at a different level. Within the ground there were so many drummers and bands playing - 2014 world cup in Brazil I can assure you will be one big party. Our American friend Tim also had a ticket for the game so he accompanied the three of us as we proceeded to walk all the way around the stadium. We eventually decided to go to the tunnel where the players would walk out to warm up in order to try and catch a glimpse of Didier Drogba, or Lucio (my new favourite centre back - sorry Vidic!). We waited along time but eventually they came out and the whole stadium erupted. We eventually made our way to the seats which were way up high. In fact we were one row from the back of the 95,000 capacity stadium and it was very seat. But like I said before there isn't a bad seat in the house and although we were a considerable distance from the pitch we still had a good view of the action. Luis Fabiano and Kaka (before he got sent off for next to nothing) wowed us with their football. The Brazilians football was on a different level to anything I'd seen live before! The game was great, the goals even better.

After the game we decided to just pick up our bags then go to the airport saving a nights pay. We crashed at the airport for around 5 hours before catching or flight to Durban. Johannesburg as a place was very spread out and I have mixed feelings about our time their. The hostels started off as very poor but ultimately ee grew to accept and love it. The people we met were cool and the stadium was unbelievable. Safe to say I'll never return to Johannesburg unless it hosts the football world cup again, but no hard feelings!

DC, Scott, Silver x